Month: July 2020

Ugh, we are hemorrhaging money this week.  Between college tuitions, medical bills and the general day to day expenses of living, things feel tight.  We did have a few wins though that helped.

1. I have a friend who is in marketing.  She asked me to do a phone interview regarding COVID.  Super simple and I scored an Amazon gift card.
2. I used the gift card to buy a Brita water filtration pitcher.  By doing this, I can cancel our water cooler.  We are currently paying $125/month for drinking water.  I have had enough of that.
3. I took my daughter and son off of our auto insurance, effective 8/15.  Our auto insurance didn’t go down much, but our Umbrella policy was cut in half!
4. We needed new smoke detectors.  My husband used the birthday coupons he received from our local hardware store to offset the cost.  Two detectors for $8/each.
5. I canceled the print edition of our local newspaper. We rarely ever read it. Waste of money.  Waste of resources.

What did you do this week to save some money?

I have been enjoying all the summer has to offer, from the comfort of my backyard.  We continue to hunker down, for the most part.  I do go to work and my girls work as well.  But beyond that, we spend most of our time in our own little cocoon at home.  Waiting for this storm to pass.  We have had some frugal wins over the last several weeks,

1. I wrote my very last check to our daughter’s singing teacher.  She will really miss her, but she is ready to move on and college is going to provide her that opportunity.
2. Our last energy bill was $100 less than last month.  That will even out the fact that next month’s will likely be $100 more.  We gave in and turned on the air conditioning.  It has been warm!
3. My daughter needed dental work and our dentist was not open due to covid.  Our dental plan requires us to use one of those franchise dentists.  I called our old dentist and got her in and then call the insurance company and got an authorization to use that dentist because ours was not open.  What would have been a $400 bill cost us $25 because I picked up the phone and asked.
4. I gave in and got an Amazon credit card.  We earn 5% and I was able to get a kindle for my daughter’s birthday for $50 with the credit it gave me.  The trick obviously, pay it off every month.  Which we will do.
5. My husband replaced the brake pads on our daughter’s car for $110.  She paid him for the parts and he supplied the labor.  Doing things yourself, when you can, saves so much money.

Our daughter goes to college next month.  We are going to miss her so much.  She won’t be able to come home until Thanksgiving, in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID.  It is going to be a really hard 3 months, but we will adjust.  Letting our kids go can be so hard.  I plan on really enjoying the next month with her at home.